Forget The Cowbell, It Needs More Bass Pt. 1
Decepticon Island - Beachfront This place is as close to a R&R facility that exists on Decepticon Island. The location is actually quite nice, an isolated beach that is carpeted with fine white sand and framed by a nice ring of luxurious green palm trees. Like many other parts of the island, the ever-present screeches and barks of monkies provide a playful chorus in the background and the occasional flying coconut at someone who comes too close. Unsurprisingly, there is the occasional burned out area where an irate Decepticon has set this area on fire. From here, one can look out on the volcano that is the heart of Decepticon Island as well as the looming shape of Trypticon in the distance. Her and there, cabling and tubing pokes out of the pristine sand that it is mostly buried in to reveal the connection from Trypticon and his support systems to the island's most important facility. Indeed, a giant bar facility has been haphazardly constructed to resemble a galactic standard tiki bar out of available materials. A giant statue of Galvatron wearing a tiki mask dominates the actual barfront, and much effort has been made to make sure only the finest grades of energon are available -- including an on-site minature energon processing facility for those who consider themselves mixologists. Misfire lets out a slight chuckle. "It is interesting to say the least." He takes another swig of his drink. "Aimless has his moments. If I could just get him to aim every now and again." He finishes his drink and prepares to order another. "To be honest, it is sometimes very unnerving...hearing an organics thoughts....they think of strange things." "Organicness is an oddity, yes," Overbite says, "Though I see more and more of our fellows seem to be adopting their guises. Though if you crammed Skalor into one of those shells, the slime and corrosion would probably eat through it and cause the shell itself to vomit." Motormaster stomps down the beach towards the tiki bar, striking the bar's Happy Cycle Gong with his fist as he comes up to it. "You two! Isn't there something better you could be doing to earn that fuel you're guzzling? Have you anything to report?" Misfire orders another drink and places more credits on the bar. He lets out a slight chuckle. "Yes...I can see what you mean." He is cut off in the middle of sentence. He jumps to attention. "Motormaster, sir. Overbite and I just finished our assigned patrols. Air and sea is clear, sir!" "Last I checked, sir, the seas were calm and empty of Autobot irritants," Overbite replies, finishing his drink and turning to look at the Stunticon Commander. Misfire relaxes slightly. "Sir, yes sir." He glances over towards Aimless who is still asleep under a tree with a large beverage in the sand next to him. Misfirethen looks back towards Motormaster, but says nothing. It's a nice night out by Earth standards. A cool breeze is blowing across the top of the ocean and a brightly-shining moon reflects off the slowly churning waves. Somewhere in that beauty are Jazz and Blaster aboard a stealthy seaworthy vehicle, which in other words is a powerless inflatable raft. "Alright dude, accordin' to the map we're comin' up on Decepticon island now. Think I can see some sorta activity over there," Jazz whispers as he paddles along the waves, hoping their infiltration goes as smoothly as it was drawn up back at Autobot City. "Now remember...once we hit the beach, we stay low and along the shore by those dunes for cover, ya dig? Let's do this A-Team style man." The Intelligence Director taps at his helm, dimming down his blue visor. If all went well for the Autobot recon unit, they'd be able to pick up a little extra intel on the newly built Decepticon stronghold. Once he's finished his last drink, Overbite sighs, slides off his bar stool, and starts to walk towards the beach. "Perhaps a swim is in order," he says. Situated in the back of the raft, Blaster is pulling his weight with a pair of paddles. Slipping in and out of the water in sychronized movement, it's evident that Jazz and Blaster will definitely be siging up for Crew in this year's Olympics. "OW!!" the over enthusiastic Tape Commander calls out, before dialing it down a notch. "We that close already, Jazz? Dayyyyum, you workin' out?" he laughs, as silently as possible. ~Dun-dun Dun-dun Dun-dun Dun-dun Dun-dun - toodle-oooo~ During Jazz's speech, Blaster has seen fit to transform and start goofing off again. The boombox snaps back to attention and transforms. "Think we need a bigger boat, Haha!" Motormaster glares at one of the giant metal moai heads the Decepticons have erected along the beach in the vicinity of the bar. "These monuments are not entirely unfitting. Cryptic, implacable. Like the Decepticons ourselves! Who designed them, Misfire? Was it Scrapper? I suspect Scrapper's hand in this." Clutch moves along beneath the surface of the water, roughly below the Autobot raft. As out of place as an Autobot can be on the open seas, they're generally even less suited to operating under them. And more vulnerable to attack from that direction. Clutch is trying to keep an optic out for just such an occurance. Misfire places his left hand behind his head and rubs it slightly in an ah shucks sort of way. "Honestly, I don't know, sir." He quickly glances back to Overbite who has already begun his Trek to the nice inviting waters. "But Scrapper sounds like a good guess. I know Aimless designed some of these foundations." He moves back to a more natural stances. "We are working on a shooting range.....for uh practice." "Nor do I," Overbite replies. He transforms back into his mutant robotic shark mode and slowly slips into the water. The robot form crouches down as the shark's head flips up, and the shark's legs and arms swing around. Watch out! As the Autobots hit the beachhead, Jazz can't help but grin at Blaster's antics. "I got a little practice runnin' the rapids with some human friends back in Colorado. It was the bomb-diggidy, hah!" Even the Autobot officer can't help but burst out with his own excitement. It was all part of being a master spy AND a party animal. Stowing away the raft behind some conveniently placed rocks, Jazz gives Blaster a thumbs up, "Remember homie, stick towards the dunes here and we'll make our way up towards that clearin' over there. We've got our number one back-up layin' low if we need some back-up, cool?" The Bot motions back towards the darkened ocean. Grabbing a few stray palm leaves, Jazz covers himself as best as he can, taking off a little deeper into the denser foliage just inland from the shore. "I'll be in touch dude! Let's rock and roll!" Suddenly, the Intelligence Director disappears into the darkness and onwards towards the objective. Combat: Jazz slips into the shadows and out of sight... Jazz says, "Keep an audio receptor on those communication channels Blast-Man! We wanna know if they're on to us." Clutch emerges right after the other Autobots, poking his head above water briefly before submerging again. Moving silently isn't his forte - but moving fast is, and if the Intel bots run into something unexpected, he's confident he can catch up with them fast enough to provide support. "You got it, Jazz!" Blaster announces, then remembers -again- the need for stealth. Nodding when the Intel Director covers himself all Rambo-Style, Blaster finds a muddy deposit along the side of the beach head and plunges head first.. Dutch-Style. Coming back out, no worse for wear.. kinda, Blaster paces along the edge of the beach and comes up on the 'bar' side Beachfront. Still clinging to the shadows and foliage, the Autobot DJ leans out and tries to get a good view. Blaster has encrypted this channel. Blaster says, "Yaow, Jazz.. check it! Set up our own private chat-lounge, ya dig?" Jazz says, "Awesome dude! Let's hope the bad guys don't bump in with that A/S/L kinda chat room junk!" Misfire nods profusely. "Yes sir. Before my current training program. I only hit the target 8 out of 1000. Now I can hit it 9 out of 1000. In fact Aimless hit the corner of the target just last cycle. That is a first." Misfire actually seems proud of his accomplishment. "Also, I have been studying some of our best shooters." He pulls out a pad that contains various Galvy-Cannon shots. "See, sir." A purple fin sticks up from the water, all the evidence there is now that Overbite was even there. The fin seems to go around in large circles, as if patrolling as well as idly swimming. Motormaster leans over Misfire to have a look at the pad. "These are all Galvatron. Feeling inSPIRED, Misfire?" Misfire glances up towards Motormaster. "Of course, all of the Decepticon Officers inspire me. I just happened to have a really good view of these shots. Lord Galvatron almost always hits what he aims at." Slowly but surely Jazz makes his way through the mixture of palm trees, short brush, and rocks keeping his visual signature as low as possible on his approach to the giant bar facility. The Autobot's radio comes to life briefly, lighting up his head-mounted speakers, but the sly spy quickly deactivates the noise, firing off a quick response. Up ahead lays what looks like some sort of R&R area for the Decepticons. Jazz's visor shifts from the large statue to the apparent bar area complete with transformer-sized stools. "These cats finally make something cool and they screw it all up. I don't see /ANY/ sign of a stereo or dance lights. What a weak setup!" Jazz pulls out a small camera and focuses it. KA-CHOOK* *KA-CHOOK* He swings it over to Motormaster and Misfire talking. KA-CHOOK* *KA-CHOOK* With some pictures in the can, the Autobot then works his way around the back of the bar area, finding a hiding spot behind the overly-large statues. "The turtle is out of the shell, ya dig!?" Jazz whisper yells into his comm. Clutch makes little circles in the water in front of him with his hands while he waits, blissfully unaware of any underwater predators in the area. Inching ever closer, Blaster is crawling on the ground now.. his chassis scraping off the ground ever-so-slightly as he makes his way closer to the Decepticon beach contingent. Pulling up some nifty special ops viewfinder, the Autobot peers through them and records some information of what looks like the bar-area on the beach. "Hello, what's this?" the mutant robot shark remarks. He feels the ripples, anomalous ripples. He decides to track them to their source. The fin ominously goes in a straight line rather than just a circle, now! Jazz says, "Yo Blaster! Good work with the channel my main squeeze-box. Looks like we've got a pair of bad dudes chattin' it up by the bar area. I'm gettin' a few snapshots for the yearbook, ya dig?!" Jazz says, "You still hangin' in there Clutch?" Blaster says, "Let's go ahead and give worst dressed to the Stunticon, OW!!" Clutch says, "I'm here...things look clear from down here. I'll let you know if -- wait a second, Stunticon? Where?" "And what have you learned so far from Lord Galvatron's technique, Misfire?" Motormaster asks, sounding dubious. Misfire offers an slighly skewed grin towards Motormaster. "Aim straight and use the biggest blast possible. Just like they taught me at the Ole Military College, Class of (insert Cybertronian year here), ya know." Jazz says, "Alright, I'm scopin' out a computer terminal here from my viewpoint! How about a little distraction while I do a little surfin' on the Con web?!" Clutch sounds more excited now. "Just point me at that Stunticon and I'll give you a distraction." Jazz says, "Just aim for the ugly on....uh...well any of them I guess over by the bar!" Clutch perks up suddenly at something he hears over the radio. He wades quickly to the shore and then pulls himself onto land before transforming into vehicle mode and tearing into the trees, following roughly the same path that Jazz and Blaster did earlier. Making no attempt at stealth, he barrels through vegetation and swerves just enough to avoid smashing himself against trees, before bursting into in plain view of the Decepticons at their bar. "Listen up you STUNTED 'Con--" His excited voice cuts off suddenly. It continues a moment later, but more somber and perhaps a note of caution. "Stunticon...uh...catch me if you can!" His engine roars, sand shoots out from under his tires, and he leaves parallel tracks as he races by in front of the bar, then skids into a turn and heads off into the trees 90 degrees in another direction. Clutch transforms into sportscar mode! Clutch sounds incredulous. "You didn't mention it was Motormaster!" Jazz says, "The bigger they are, the harder they fall dude!" Orders are orders, and who is Blaster to object? It gives him a reason to sound off and dispel this tom-foolery.. Master-Blaster style now! Running forward, Blaster jumps in the air and transforms.. shrinking down considerably into his boombox mode. Landing in some soggy sand/mud, the tunes belt out of the small red and yellow device. ~I'm turning Japanese. I think I'm turning Japanese, I really think so! Turning Japanese. I think I'm turning Japanese, I really think so!~ Turns out the sand/mud is actually.. a sinkhole! <> his emission breaks into a muffled announcement, quickly sinking until completely enveloped. Focus and Shoot. KA-CHOOK* *KA-CHOOK* Jazz gets a few more pictures of the surroundings before sneaking into the bar area. Scanning the empty space, he notices a computer terminal that appears to be hooked up to Trypticon via a lengthy cable that's strung up outside the bar. "Ah ha! Jackpot!" the Autobot excitedly whispers before he hears Clutch race by with all the fury of a well-built sportscar. That combined with Blaster's own attention-grabbing maneuver gives Jazz enough time to do a little exploring. "Open ses-ah-mee and all that Jazz!" Tapping at the computer console, Jazz isn't exactly the greatest hacker, but he's got enough common sense to get him through it. "Hmmm...password...password..." Jazz whisks his blue finger over the keys, and suddenly the screen lights up - ACCESS GRANTED - A second later, the Autobot is quickly trying to sift through the data files, hoping to find something to help his faction's cause. "Hah! Who would have thought 'Galvatron Rules All' would have worked! Guess some things never change!" The commotion on the beach alerts the Seacon and he hightails it back to shore. "Have company now, do we?" he remarks, as he emerges from the waves. The random Autobot Sports Car attracts his attention. "This will never do. Autobot, cease and desist soiling our beach!" He aims his freeze beam blaster at Clutch. Combat: Shark Mutant strikes Blue Sportscar with his Freeze-Beam Blaster attack! Combat: Blue Sportscar has been temporarily incapacitated. "Your biggest blast will never compare to Galvatron's!" Motormaster scoffs. "But the PRINciple is sound. Maybe you've learned something after all. Carry on, Misfire!" He tromps back up the beach towards the base, satisfied that all is more or less well on the island... little does he know! Misfire nods his head slightly as he watches Motormaster walk away. "Thank you Motormaster!". He slowly turns back to the bar, only to hear a blast ring out that travels behind him. "What was that?" He treks over towards where Aimless is still sleeping under a nice tree. "See Aimless, we need to work on finishing our shooting range. Motormaster thinks it is a good idea and even Overbite wants to use it, based on that last shot." Aimless, however, does not stir. Taking a look over the various files, Jazz looks like a kid in a candy store. "Oh man! Where to start?! Let's see. Looks like this has some different folders. Let me try clicking on this." Suddenly, the screen displays four different folders. 1. Defense Grid 2. Engineering 3. Research & Development 4. Communications Jazz takes a look over his shoulder hearing Motormaster's bellowing voice along with some weapons fire. Hoping he has enough time to download /some/ useful information, he pulls out a data stick from subspace and slips it into the computer terminal. "Don't fail me now little dude! Download all that data and make it pronto!" But as the files start transfering, he notices a gargle from Blaster over the radio and Clutch's energon signature suddenly seems to come to a dead stop. Running a check of the computer terminal, he scans the screen for the latest status. It reads: RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT 8 PERCENT COMPLETE "That's gonna have to do for now. Time to boogie!" Deciding to help his teammates, Jazz yanks the data stick out of the computer terminal and sneaks out of the bar area just in time to find Misfire's back turned in his direction. "Hide and seek is over dude! You lose, I win!" Combat: Jazz appears from the shadows... Combat: Sneak Attack!! Combat: Jazz misses Misfire with his What You Don't See WILL Hurt You (Punch) attack! The Mutant Robot Shark is satisfied that he's icecubed an Autobot. "Now, where there's one nosy Autobot, there may be more." He transforms and starts exploring the places where Autobots could hide from them. The shark's arms, legs, and head swing out of the way, and his robot head and limbs appear. Windshear has decided to check out this 'deceticon island'. Its his day off (its always hsi day off) and he walks along the path, keeping a wary optic at the water in the near distance, yet enjoying the volcanic heat. As he walks he comes up on the Tiki bar and visually scanning the area his optics freeze on the Tiki mask Galvatron statue. His mouth drops open, a wing twitches and he starts laughing. Misfire hears the distinctive sound of Jazz's voice. He barely managed to mumble an "Uh oh". Almost 5,000 classes in hand to hand combat training kick in and the Targetmaster deftly moves out of the way of punch. That is his story. In actuality, the targetmaster flops forward as the punch sails over his head. The Decepticon manages to attempt a sweeping motion of his leg towards Jazz's feet. Combat: Misfire strikes Jazz with his Targetmaster's graceful sweep. Not really that graceful (Kick) attack! Tripping over the base of Galvatron's tiki-statue, Jazz completely ruins any chance he had for a surprise attack from the shadows. Just as he steadies himself, he's dropped onto his back by Misfire's counter-attack. "Uhh..I totally planned it that way dude! Don't let it go to your head or anything!" Hoping the rest of his team is doing better than he is, the stylish Bot snaps out his rifle and aims up at the Targetmaster. "Say hello to my shiiiinnnny friend Decepticlown!" Combat: Jazz strikes Misfire with his Solar-Powered Photon Rifle attack! Windshear stops laughing suddenly as he sees Jazz trip over the base of the Galvatron tiki statue, "Hey where did you come from?" he asks redundently and brings his arm cannons online. Overbite turns his attention towards the clumsy Jazz. "Ah, there we are. Another Autobot as I suspected." He rushes up to the Autobot and transforms, then lashes out with his tail. The robot form crouches down as the shark's head flips up, and the shark's legs and arms swing around. Watch out! Combat: Shark Mutant misses Jazz with his Tail sweep! (Kick) attack! "Decepticon you fo-" Misfire is cut off as Jazz's blast hits him square in the chest. The left breastplate of his armor sparks and then blows out a small chuck of the armor. "That hurt..." Misfire quickly rolls over grabing Aimless in one one motion. Poor Aimless jolted from his sleep, lets out a groan as Misfire begins to mash him into his gun mode. Satisfied with the result, Misfire turns gripping Aimless firmly now and sends off a blast towards Jazz. At least in Jazz's direction. Combat: Misfire strikes Jazz with his Aimless's Lazy Random Shot (Laser) attack! Jazz hears Overbite's transformation just in time to take notice and leap over the mechanical monster's swinging tail. Unfortunately he can't side-step Misfire's laser blast quick enough, getting smoked in the shoulder. "Hey man! Don't ya know the rules?! You don't hit a robot with a visor!" The Autobot charges forward and snaps a few punches off at the Targetmaster's head before he back-flips and sends a kick at Overbite's hulking form. It's not exactly the most powerful of attacks, but it's all he can manage while he wonders what happened to Blaster and Clutch. Maybe they got captured? Maybe they already retreated back to the extraction point? Combat: Jazz strikes Misfire with his Lightning Quick Combo Area attack! -3 Combat: Jazz strikes Shark Mutant with his Lightning Quick Combo Area attack! -3 "That isn't in the rules, trust me I read the manual like thousand tim-" Misfire is again cutoff as Jazz lands two solid blows at the Targetmasters Noggin. The punches make a clinking sound that rings through the beach as the Targetmaster stumbles backwards still slightly dazed from the attack. Helplessly, Aimless begins shooting towards Jazz's last position. Windshear ponders joining in on the fight. Hes not so much interested in beating Jazz to scrap, hes done that once already (year or so ago here -- different player I think for Jazz), no, what hes more curious about is how he got here. He watches Misfire and Overbite tag teaming the Autobot and calls out, "How'd you get here, Jazz? Be a good outnumbered bot and tell us how." he does raise an arm cannon and takes aim. Combat: Misfire misses Jazz with his Random Aimless shot (Disruptor) attack! Shark Mutant oofs as he's kicked right in the nose. His shark nose. "Bad move, Autobot," he says. His gigantic maw opens and he lunges at Jazz. "I always wondered if I could taste music." Combat: Shark Mutant strikes Jazz with his Taste the rainbow! (Punch) attack! This time Jazz ducks behind Galvatron's tiki-statue, letting it absorb Misfire's random shot compliments of Aimless. "Guess you skipped the part about learnin' how to aim too Deceptidork! Better luck next time!" The Autobot calls into his radio, "Can you hear me now?! Hello?! Breaker, breaker come in A-Team! Do you read me?!" Hearing static on the other end, Jazz darts away from his cover and towards the safety of some palm trees in the distance. "Don't worry about it Windshear!" he calls out upward, "Why's the sky blue?! Why's the grass green?! Why does Cyclonus always give Galvatron that creepy grin?! Some things are better left unknown, ya dig?!" CLANNNNK* Distracted for a moment with the Seeker, Jazz doesn't see Overbite barrel in for a chomp of his leg armor. "OWWW! If that's your idea of heavy metal then I think you've got the wrong idea you over-grown Jaws reject!! Open your audio receptors and I'll give ya something to listen to!" A cannon suddenly appears on Jazz's right arm and it's barrel points right back at the Seacon. Other don't notice much when the Autobot squeezes the trigger, but Overbite might as a tight-beam of impressive sonic energy zips through the air at him. Combat: Jazz misses Shark Mutant with his Sonic Cannon attack! Windshear smirks. He didnt get the answer he wanted but he did distract the Autrobot music meister and that was good enough. He slowly walks over to where Jazz is at, resisting the urge to look up at the Galvatron Tiki statue -- falling out laughing right now would not be cool. "I suppse we have to do this the hard way then, Jazz." he rumbles and fires at the Autobot. Misfire continues to staggar backwards as his head keeps ringing. Unfortantely, Aimless's blasts force the Targetmaster to lose his balance and he falls backwards knocking his head against an ill-placed stone. His optics flash once, before the Targetmaster is down for the 10 count. Combat: Windshear misses Jazz with his Thermal Laser attack! -4 The robot shark manages to sidestep Jazz's musical assault. "You call that an attack? Really? I'll show you how it's done!" He transforms back to robot mode and points his jawbreaker cannon at Jazz. The shark's arms, legs, and head swing out of the way, and his robot head and limbs appear. Combat: Overbite misses Jazz with his Jawbreaker Cannon attack! He doesn't have good luck with his aim on Overbite, but Jazz does manage to duck under the intense lance from the Jawbreaker Cannon. That's already after the nimble Autobot has performed a back-bend to avoid the wrath of Windshear's Thermal Laser. "That's two strikes Deceptidorks! One more and you're out, ya dig?!" All of a sudden, Jazz's attention shifts to a muddy boombox sticking out of the wet sand and he immediately recognizes the colors. "Blast-Man! There you are! Did someone put your alarm clock on snooze or something buddy?!" Taking a defensive stance in front of the lifeless stereo, the outnumbered robot does his best to ward off the attackers, "Ya know if Kup was here he'd probably have a rockin' story to tell right about now. Guess I'm gonna have to make up my own! It starts with a bang!" Taking out a metal-ball from subspace, Jazz tosses it up a few times, testing its weight before he hurls it in the direction of the group of Decepticons. As the metal-ball hits the sand, it explodes with tremendous force, rattling everything within its proximity. BOOOOOOOOOOM!! Combat: Jazz strikes Windshear with Concussion Grenade's Small Explosion #10537 Area attack! Combat: That attack has temporarily impaired Windshear's Agility. (Crippled) Combat: Jazz strikes Overbite with Concussion Grenade's Small Explosion #10537 Area attack! Combat: That attack has temporarily impaired Overbite's Agility. (Crippled) Windshear gets caught in the full blast of the grenade and stumbles to the ground momentatily stunned on top of taking a fair amount of damage from the concussion and shrapnel. "Slag it.." You know that ringing sound you get on Call of Duty when a grenade explodes too close? Overbite has that right now. He stumbles about in a disoriented fashion, holding his head as it rings. He may or may not bump into Jazz when he does so! Combat: Overbite strikes Jazz with his Disorientation! (Kick) attack! The explosion of the concussion grenade lights up the night sky temporarily, reflecting off Jazz's visor in the process. "Wow!! Reminds me of the 4th of July Fireworks show! Gotta give Crosshairs some props for that later!" The good guy shifts down into his racing-striped Porsche mode, <> After cranking up his stereo loud enough for Windhsear to hear, the race car takes off down the coast and back towards the extraction point with Blaster fastened in the passenger seat. A small data disk blinks idly on the Porsche's dashboard. Hopefully the information on it would serve the Autobots well. Right now though all Jazz could think about was Clutch. Hopefully he had made it to the extraction point already or there would be a search & rescue mission in the planner VERY SOON. Break it down! With a flurry of sounds, Jazz drops down into a Porsche 935 Turbo. Combat: White Porsche 935 strikes Windshear with his Is That Bon Jovi Playing? attack! -3 When Overbite finally recovers from the grenade, he pulls out his blaster. "I'll tan your hide!" he shouts after the retreating Jazz, taking pot shots. Windshear gets bombarded with.. Bon Jovi? It clashes wtih the thrash/death/heavy metal music files hes got and it jarrs him out of his daze rather rudely. The dead colored Seeker stumbles back to his feet and sneears, "You deserve to get shot for playing that trash, Jazz!" and he ablidges. Combat: Overbite misses White Porsche 935 with his Laser attack! Combat: Windshear strikes White Porsche 935 with his Laser attack! Combat: White Porsche 935 begins retreating, outrunning all pursuit.